In recent years, demands have been heard for development of robots capable of automating the handling of fabric. This may, for example, include transporting fabric, piling fabric, and folding fabric in the apparel industry, the cleaning industry, the linen supply industry, the welfare industry, and the medical industry.
Incidentally, it is necessary to establish a technology for spreading fabric in order to implement an automated handling of fabric. A variety of proposals have been made for the technology of spreading fabric (e.g., see PTL 1).
PTL 1 discloses a spreading device including: a first clamp for clamping a first corner of fabric; a fabric spreading clamp for spreading the fabric clamped by the first clamp; and a second clamp for clamping a second corner of the fabric spread by the fabric spreading clamp.